Nerd Herding at Comic Con 2012.

Comic Con 2012. San Diego, Ca.Everyone has seen the episode of Entourage where Vince alienates an influential blogger only to regain his support by hooking the guy up with porn stars. 

Well, it's not far from the truth.

Comic Con 2012 is a wrap. Almost everyone survived. Unless you've attended Comic Con yourself it's difficult to conceptualize.  Aspen Spin will attempt to break it down for you. Comic Con has become the most important Pop Culture event of the year. Over 600 hours of programming takes place over 4 days...so no one can do it all, but A-Spin created 3 photo albums for your perusal. Click 'em, like 'em, tag 'em, share 'em.

*COS PLAY is the NEW BLACK 

*BAD KIDS go to HELL Movie Premier and Red Carpet.

*INSIDE the PRESS ROOM at COMIC CON

Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis wnet through the rickets in the press room. Click 4 Pix.

RDJ. The biggest movie star on the planet.Comic Con started originated in San Diego 1970 with 300 attendees.  Now, in 2012, attendance is capped-off at 130,000 badges (includes attendees, panelists, industry people and exhibitors).  10's of thousands more un-badged revelers descend on San Diego's Gaslamp district to take it all in.

The convention floor consists of 460,000 square feet. Every inch is packed.  That doesn't include the square footage rented in neighboring hotels, restaurants and other venues.

Parking is $40 and you can't find a space.

The economic impact of Comic Con to San Diego is estimated at $180,000,000,  $75 million of which is spent directly inside the convention center. 

Hall H is the largest meeting room at Comic con and holds 6500 souls.  Devotees wait in line for up to 3 days to secure their spots for presentations like Twilight, Game of Thrones, Iron Man 3 etc.

Cos Play (dressing up in costume) has become the "new black".  Comic geeks take their cos play very, very seriously, creating elaborate costumes and sometimes choosing completely obscure characters to imitate.

San Diego is in danger of losing the Con to Anaheim which has a larger convention center.  Very few people (outside of Anaheim) are rooting for that.

We'll let our pix do the talking.

COS PLAY   /  BAD KIDS  /  The PRESS ROOM

Comic CON invades San Diego. CLICK 4 PIX. COS PLAY is the NEW BLACK.BAD KIDS go to HELL Movie Premier at Comic Con. Yes..that's Judd Nelson. CLICK 4 PIX.

 Don Cheadle doing press for Iron Man 3 at Comic Con. Click 4 more pix.

 Ian McKellen hyping The Hobbit at Comic Con. See more from the Press Room. Click here.

Sports, Money and Rock & Roll

L.A. is like a car wreck.  You don't want to watch...but you can't look away.   Los Angeles is not really my kind of town...but I always enjoy it in short spurts.   AspenSpin rolled 101 miles North to Los Angeles in order to plug into the sports and entertainment media mainstream for a few days.   In addition to some off-line debauchery, we attended 2 enormous events, the 2012 ESPY Awards and the Variety Sports Entertainment Summit.

See Pix:   THE 2012 ESPY Awards  /  VARIETY SPORTS SUMMIT  / HOLLYWOOD ROCKS

The 2012 ESPYs. Click 4 Pix. Bode MillerBucket List Item scratched: The ESPY's fulfilled my desire to attend a glamorous Hollywood Awards Show. The ESPYs is basically the Oscars for Athletes.  A-Spin scored a seat in the last row (literally) of the Nokia Theatre at L. A. Live for the 20th annual ESPY Awards.  While ESPN is a friend of A-Spin's program, we did not get the full-on hook-up, so no RCE (red carpet experience).  It was just cool to be there, in person even if it was in the nose bleeds. 

Rob Riggle , who hosted the show...is a very funny guy.  His icy stare at Kentucy hoops coach John Calipari during the opening monologue got plenty of laughs.  Riggle brought out media superstar TIM TEBOW within the first 2 minutes just to confirm that the show had started.   The ESPY's annually occur on the quietest night in sports.  The night after the MLB All-Star Game is one of two nights every year when all 4 major sports leagues are dormant. The ESPYs was broadcast to 175 countries in 52 languages.   Tebow took home the ESPY for "best moment" for his 80 yard TD pass to Demaryius Thomas on the first play of OT against Pittsburg in last years NFL playoffs.  This award ignited a twitter war with the Tampa Bay Rays, who thought their Game 162 heroics deserved the win.  Coach Pat Summit recevied the Arthur Ashe Award in a very emotional presentation, with her son Tyler by her side.   New Bronco QB, Peyton Manning delived the hardware to Coach Pat.  LeBron James took home two individual awards and the Miami Heat won best team.  Local favorites the L.A. Kings had to settle for "best upset". According to AEG's CEO Tim Leiweke (owner of the Kings) "it was no upset" . Our boyieee Shaun White won "best male action sports" and Bode Miller was in the crowd with a smokin hot date.  The ESPYs was fun and it was good to be there, but it's basically the same as you see it on TV. Very few athletes made it up to the Mezz level at Nokia, and I had to smuggle my camera in but we got a few sick pix.  Click  SPORTS, MONEY and ROCK & ROLL.

Click here to see all the ESPY Winners: 

UFC's Dana White held session at Variety. Click 4 pix.Variety Magazine hosted The Sports and Entertainment Summit at the newly re-flagged Loews Hollywood.  Over 400 attendees enjoyed a full day of speakers and presentations from sports media industry leaders, top executives, athletes and entrepreneurs.   The list of speakers and panelists was extremely impressive.  Keynotes from Tim Leiweke (CEO of AEG, the 2nd largest live entertainment company in the world) Dana White (President of UFC) and Tony Hawk (skater and businessman) provided tremendous insight into the Sports and Entertainment media business.   The event was live-streamed to 145 countries in 52 languages...not bad.

A few take home points.

* Ad Revenue from the London Olympics... will exceed $1 billion. 

*The Beijing Olympics produced 52 million unique visits and over a billion page views for NBC's website. In London 2012, NBC is poised to blow those numbers away.

* NBC will produce over 5500 hours of content in London.  The much ballyhooed 3 platform deal between Facebook and NBC will have "no money changing hands".

* Olympic Sponsorship is way more integrated in 2012.  Fewer sponsors, more activation.

* Ambush marketing... keep your eye on Subway.

* The USOC has 12 million Facebook fans (seems low??) and has established rules and guidelines for the athletes....on tweeting.

*AEG (Anschultz Entertainment Group) Owns or manages over 70 major venues and has 24,000 employees worldwide

* L.A. traffic even beats the BIG Shots.  Tim Leiweke was a late for his keynote and offered up some choice rhetoric ... " the Highland off ramp was jammed".

* 12 years ago when Staples Center was built, L.A. was the "most immature sports market in the world" and #26 in the U.S. for conventions behind Omaha. Leiweke is very confident about NFL Football coming back to L.A., hopefully in the proposed privately funded Farmers Field in Downtown.

*Leiweke spoke about obstacles ahead for the stadium.  "The L.A. City Council can't run a 7-11, let alone a municipality" and he added "the problem with L.A is that anyone can sue, and they do".

* Sports is social.  It's the last bastion of live TV ..no time shifting.  People now consume on  multi screens and multi-platforms and age group is a key determination to how fans consume their sports.

* Data collection is the key...know your customer.  

* Dana White did not attend College and had zero business experience when he bought the UFC (with partners) for $2 million.   Last Saturday UFC 148 generated over $50 million in one per-per-view event as well as $7 million at the gate.   UFC has licensenced an underwear line in Brazil.  Over 200,000 units sold the first day.  UFC's first bout in China is scheduled for November.

* Dana White is incredibly honest and authentic and his personality reflects his business.  He has 2.1 million twitter followers.  He stuck around for an hour after his talk to personally meet and greet over 100 people...individually.  You can feel his passion for UFC.

* Social Media and the connection to fans today is like a "virtual autograph".

* NFL Red Zone is for "those with A.D.D. and a gamblers dream".

* Tony Hawk is the most chill dude on the planet.

* Kids think Tony Hawk is "named after a video game".

* His clothing line started when he had kids and could only fine "small versions of lame adult clothes". His sister and business manager started it in her garage  His 19 year old son is now a pro skater. 

*Tony admitted to being "a little old for a pro skater" but says he "walks the walk" every day and that he only associates with products that reflect his skater ethos.  He has also sold more than $1 billion in video games with his name on it.

Fox Sports at the Variety Sports Summit Click for PixVariety's Sports Entertainment Summit was a fabulous event.  We all know that sports media is an ENORMOUS business.  Sports are not just games for kids anymore as billions and billions of dollars are riding on it.  AspenSpin would like to thank Variety for hosting us at the Sports and Entertainment Summit.  It gave us an opportunity to mingle and meet with athletes, agents, producers and execs from ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports and more.  It was entertaining and informative and confirmed the age old adage....CONTENT is KING.

As far as Rock and Roll goes...we stayed in Hollywood at the center of the R & R world.  We also caught a phenomenal photo exhibit, WHO SHOT ROCK and ROLL at the Annenberg Photography Space in Century City.   I highly recommend this show if you're in L.A. Annenberg has a no photo policy...so we can't share any images, but it's an outstanding show that depicts Rock's history on film.. 

See our sick pix.   SPORTS, MONEY and ROCK & ROLL.

Shaun White and Olivia Munn were dressed to thrill at the 2012 ESPY AWARDS.Variety Editor Stuart Levine and Tony Hawk "winged it" at the Variety Sports and Entertainment Summit. Click 4 pix.It's only ROCK & ROLL. Hollywood, Ca. Click for pix.

The Wish Factory

Click to DONATE to MAKE-A-WISHAs Comic Con approaches our in-box is jam packed with with Media Alerts.  There is no possible way to keep up with the sheer volume of press releases.  Like a beacon, one e-mail stood out, it came from Octagon on behalf of the Make-A-Wish foundation.  Octagon is huge so we clicked.

Click 4 Pix  THE WISH FACTORY

Nerdist, E-Bay, Shoebacca, gogo, The Spazmatics, The Dan Band and others were joining forces to take an epic journey to Comic Con.  It is called COURSE of the FORCE.  Course of the Force is a 5-day, California style Star Wars tribute and a light sabre running relay traveling from Santa Monica to San Diego.  It's also a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Click for Course of the Force.We caught up with the Course of the Force at their "Conival", a mid-relay carnival and concert at the OceanSide Pier on a beautiful Southern California afternoon.

Part fundraiser, part Star Wars geek fest, part athletic event, part concert, Course for the Force is raising money and awareness for MAKE-A-WISH Foundation.  Make-A-Wish has been granting wishes to sick kids with life threatening illnesses since 1980.   As an organization, Make-A-Wish has granted over 220,000 wishes.  The San Diego chapter is celebrating their 3000th "wish granted" with an event on July 21 at Petco Park. 

Nerds are not really known at big spenders, so A-Spin is trying to connect the dots to some of our deep pocketed friends on the internet.  Making a sick kid's wish come true...there really is no better feeling.   I know, because I've done it a few times.  Do me a personal favor.  Click Course for the Force to bid on some awesome auction items...or click Make-A-Wish and just make a donation.  Large or Small...do it now.  

Giving back feels good.  Granting a wish to a terminally ill child puts things in persepective.

Click 4 Pix  THE WISH FACTORY

The Spazmatics jammed in Oceanside for Course of the Force and Make-A-Wish. Click for pixTed...the Intern kept it together at Course of the Force and Make-A-Wish. Click for pix.Cos play at Course of the Force and Make-A-Wish. Click 4 pix.Cody Lovaas getting chicks after he opened Course of the Force. Click 4 pix.

Social Media Day, San Diego.

Downtown Rob rallied the troops for Social Media Day San Diego. Click 4 more PIX June 30 is celebrated as SOCIAL MEDIA DAY..worldwide.  Social Media Day, was started by Mashable in 2010. #SMDay is a "global event that recognizes the digital revolution happening right before our eyes".  Mashable is the ubiquitous social media blog that helps keep everyone tethered to their devices. San Diego rallied for #smdaysd.

CLICK 4 PIX  #SMdaySD

 "America's Finest City", San Diego  officially proclaimed June 30, 2012 as Social Media Day...after a thorough background check. San Diego hosted the largest (maybe) #SMday event in the world.  A totally FREE event, with about 700 attendees (550 of which were photographers).  The celebration took place at the posh Marriot Marquis, San Diego, a gigantic, 1300 room waterfront hotel and marina.  The newly remodeled Marina Kitchen (re-done to the tune of $10.6) accommodated the enormous and boisterous crowd with ease.   The colossal sized venue with sweeping views of San Diego Harbor has recently been given a new opulent re-design with swank natural finishes. It's a good thing too... soon Comic Con will soon be at the Convention Center next door...and they gotta look good for the Super Heros.

The Offcial Proclamation. #SMdaySDSan Diego event organizers "Downtown " Rob Marlbrough (@downtownrob) of Fandom Marketing and Tyler Anderson (@tylerjanderson) of Casual Fridays put together a great event featuring swag bags, contests, give-a-ways, complimentary food and drinks and plenty of hot chicks.

Klout doesn't consider me a pundit anymore, but as a participant in social media and an unofficial commentator of #sm trends and practices, I'd say social media is "all growed up".  Yeah..I know I previously wrote that the golden age of social media is dead...and I'll stick by that.  And yeah, I have not fully embraced mobile...crazy, right?  But this is different.  This is mainstream.  Anybody with access to a computer or a smart phone and with the skills to get on FB was invited.  If you can believe the stats...that's almost everyone.  The event attracted an extremely wide assortment of types and demographic categories. One thing is clear, social media is not just for the geeks and the shut-in's anymore.  On-line and off-line have officially merged.

Think about it.  California's second largest city officially proclaimed the day...that's a lot of red tape..  Marriot...a pretty tightly run (to say the least) and publicly traded international hospitality outfit hosted...at their brand spanking new, $10 million dollar snack shack on the Harbor.  The SD organizers are both entrepreneurs in the #sm space who have left corporate jobs to pursue their dreams.  Old media (no offence) strongly supported the #smday effort.  The San Diego Union-Tribune, NBC, Fox, CBS News all featured #SMDaySD with their own content. Lots of legitimate businesses donated free-stuff for contest prizes and gift bags. AspenSpin volunteered as a greeter.   Hundreds of friendly well behaved people showed up,  most of whom had a good time networking, socializing, partying...or whatever.  It's possible...and I'm gonna say likely, that some social media enthusiasts might have even "hooked up"....OFF-LINE...in real life.

It's Casual. #smday Day in San DiegoFor the first hour...a lot of people seemed nervous.  Many guests mentioned that it was their "first-ever" #sm event.  Fashion statements were being made and murdered at the same time.  The crowd flowed in early.  Some people posed for pix at the "step and repeat",  most of 'em checked in on foursquare, almost everyone tweeted and tons of them instagramed.   Eventually people started to loosen up...once they were all checked in.  A few complimentary adult beverages were poured and imbibed with ice balls and finally the reflex texting slowed down and continuous screen checks evolved into actual face-to-face convo's.  As time moved on, people became more comfortable in a real life social situation. The algorithm had nothing to do with it.   I noticed  phones being lowered and eye-ball to eye-ball contact increased. Jokes were told, yarns were spun, cocktails were quaffed, cards were exchanged, "likes" were clicked. 

Social Media is the reality  Everybody's in. 

Happy Social Media Day. CLICK 4 PIX  #SMdaySD

Social Media thought leader Mari Smith and #smdaysd organizer Tyler Anderson and Randy Clemens from Stone Brewery brought friends. click 4 pix.

The Ladies of Marina Kitchen at the Marriott Marquis, San Diego. Click 4 pix.Old Media. The SD Union-Tribune (Originally founded 1861) reaching the younger demographic at Social Media Day. Click 4 pix. Yeah, Dudes do Social Media too. Click 4 pix.

Surf & Turf / Off-Season Steezin'

During the Winter, AspenSpin rarely ventures outside the traffic circle in Aspen.  However, experience tells us that there are lots of great places out there.   Aspen is an incredible place to spend the Summer, but for the past five years, A.Party has packed up the dog in the family truckster and headed out to California.  The past 3 years we've been in San Diego. It's a change-of-pace.  It's different.  It's a big city and it a'int bad.

So we're kickin' back, and chillin' on the beach, in Del Mar, Ca. (18 miles North of SD) for the off season. Yaaa,dude.

A few pix for your review.

Watching the sun set over the Pacific never gets old.A-Spin was this close to getting with a Kardashian. Bruce Jenner in San Diego for the Drew Brees Charity Golf Tourney.Feeling the stoke at an early age on Del Mar Beach.In n Out Burger is the #1 thing in So. Cal. Here's a double-double Izzy-style.Cruising off-leash on the empty beach at 6 a.m. is the absolute best.Summer Solstice Sunset in So. Cal.Eric Burdon and The Animals rocked the Del Mar Fair. Live music every night is part of the program.

Swimming in La Jolla Cove is my favorite work-out.Getting it done under water in La Jolla Cove.San Diego Lifeguards. Keeping it safe for everyone.Sunset in Del Mar.Carmelo and I both love long walks on the beach.